A conventional profiling float may be an oceanographic instrument platform that changes its buoyancy in order to move vertically in an ocean. Conventional profiling floats may repeatedly collect information with sensors at a range of depths (“profiles”). Common sensors may include temperature, conductivity, and pressure (from which salinity can be calculated), though a wide range of other sensors have been deployed on floats. Conventional profiling floats may transmit collected data at a water surface by radio transmission to one or more satellites and/or other signal receivers.